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Why claims about genetic differences between groups are almost always misinterpreted
Nicole Kleman, Meng Lin, Christopher R. Gignoux, Arslan A. Zaidi
May 22, 2026
Different populations have different disease rates and allele frequencies, but these don't prove genetic differences—they could just reflect population structure, biased studies, or measurement error. Both major statistical approaches (ancestry-based and polygenic score comparisons) fail to distinguish real genetic effects from statistical artifacts. The authors argue we should nearly always doubt claims that genetic risk differs meaningfully between groups.
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